


Ulna

by grizzly_bear_bane



Series: Cigar Box [3]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Brief Reference to Past Non-Con/Rape, Drug Addiction, Homelessness, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, Intervention, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Soulmates, Underage Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-14
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 16:21:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1311307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grizzly_bear_bane/pseuds/grizzly_bear_bane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eames really really loves Arthur, but Arthur's never figured out how to love himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ulna

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Arthur’s never seen that much blood before.

Two years ago, when Cobb had betrayed Eames and let the gang keep Arthur? When they’d run out of lube that second week? He’d thought that was a lot of blood, but Arthur was only just one person. Eames, on the other hand, had just bulldozed an entire room of junkies, including Nash, with his bare hands only a few minutes ago. _That_ was an awful lot of blood.

It’s on the bottom of his feet, it’s on his clothes, it’s on Eames’…everything, even though the man hardly cares. The other tenants milling about the floors between Nash’s place and Yusuf’s just stare wide-eyed at them, but none dare to speak. Eames is still fuming, his fuse burned down to the bomb and he will explode again, if he has to. If anyone else lays a hand on Arthur, Eames will fucking lose his shit all over again, and it won’t end any better.

Arthur should have known better. He can admit that. He shouldn’t have gone anywhere near Nash, but he’s been off of coke for a week now and he can’t sleep, he can’t stomach food, and he can’t risk sneaking a hit again or Eames will find out again. So when Nash offered him something different, well… And what was heroin, anyways, but just another drug that got people high? It couldn’t have been that bad, just to take one hit to hold him over until the coke is out of his system, right?

No. It's harder, goes deeper into the flesh and will make Arthur forget coke ever existed because there is no better feeling to be had than with what's swirling around in the syringe. That’s what Nash had promised. It looked disgusting on the spoon, like rust water from a ditch, and the other people in the room moped and sat around like zombies. That was good, though, Arthur had reasoned. If it would make him stay put for a little while, calm him down, let him sleep, then he was more than willing to try it.

Eames is so enraged, he doesn’t notice that Arthur’s barefoot as he pulls him back to Yusuf’s flat. “Eames?” Arthur sniffles, pale and trembling as Eames’ grip bruises his arm. “Eames, talk to me," he pleads. "Look, I know I’m in trouble, but can we just…talk about it? Please?”

He doesn’t feel good rolling excuses around in his empty head, but Eames is going to want to kill him or get answers as soon as they get behind closed doors. He's dreading it. If only he could be any place but here right now, he'd run in a heartbeat and never stop running. Arthur won’t deny that what just happened is his fault. It is. And had he known that Eames was going to follow him and catch him in that den with a belt around his arm and Nash a breath away from giving him his first hit, if he had known that Eames was going to do what he did…well…

Eames kicks the door open and throws Arthur on the wood floor.

Arthur lands hard on his hip and elbow. He tries to scurry away, but Eames is on top of him in a flash, holding his arms.

“Be one-hundred percent honest with me, Arthur. For just once in your life, can you do that?”

He wipes his face and nods. “Yes.”

“Do you want me to kill you?”

“What?” He tries to break free, but can’t.

“Answer me!" Eames grabs his face. "Do you want me to fucking kill you?”

“No!” Arthur struggles, knowing Eames has totally lost it now. “No, of course not!”

“Do you want to kill yourself then?”

“No! Eames, let me go!”

“Do you want to die?”

“No, Eames. Please!”

“Then why the fuck do you keep doing things that will fucking kill you? Huh? Why? Why can’t you fucking stop?”

“I’m trying, okay? I am!”

“With that shit? With those people? Did you see that guy with the fucking lesions all over his fucking face about to take one of Nash’s syringes? Do you know what those fucking spots come from?”

He shakes his head, still expecting to be pummeled like the rest of them were. “No.”

“God damn it. It’s AIDS. Have you even ever heard of—of course you haven’t. Of-fucking-course not! It’s a blood thing. A virus. Worse than chlamydia, worse than gonorrhea. It eats you up from the inside and fucks up your skin like that. That’s going to be you in eight months if you don’t fucking start listening to me. You’re going to die. Do you hear me? You will die if you keep this up.”

Arthur goes down flat on his back on the wood when Eames buries his face on Arthur’s stomach.

“God damn you, Arthur!”

Arthur’s stunned when he hears Eames sob. “Eames?”

Eames shakes as he cries. “Do you know what it feels like to walk in on your worst nightmare? It hurts. It hurts to have seen you in that room with them about to throw away your fucking life. God, I wish I didn’t care about you, but I can’t help it! I fucking love you, okay? But, you just… you just want to wreck yourself, that’s all! My god…” he whispers. “Arthur, Arthur, why the fuck do you keep tormenting me?”

Arthur tries to sit up, but he can’t, so he rolls them to the side, his arms circling the back of Eames’ neck and keeping his head off the floor while he cries, clutching Arthur’s shirt with his bloodstained hands.

There have always been and no doubt will always be parts of Eames that frighten Arthur. He's only seen him like this once before. It's terrifying, because what are you supposed to do when your rock crumbles? “I’m sorry, Eames," he whispers back, petting his hair and the side of his face. "I won't…I won’t do it again. I swear this time. I’m done. I promise, I’m done. Please don't cry. I'm so sorry. I failed you again.”

“You fail yourself, Arthur,” Eames mutters against his stomach. “It’s not about me. You have to do this for you. You have to give yourself a chance to have something better than this, even if I’m not here.”

“If you’re not here, nothing else matters. There’s no reason to live if I don’t have you.”

“No, no, no, baby.” He sits up, his cheeks wet and his eyes red. He pulls Arthur into his arms, rocking him. “You know I don’t like when you talk like that. Your life has value. It always has. You have to fight for you just as hard as I do.”

Arthur laughs bitterly, making Eames sigh. “I’m a whore, who can’t trick until I’m off the medication, because if one of those creeps catches something from me in the meantime, I’ll be in trouble, but none of them, like that fucking scum who gave me this shit in the first place, don’t give half as much of a shit about _my_ wellbeing as I have to about theirs." He laughs again, his eyes wet as well, his voice cracking. “So, what else is left?”

“You can start by trying to see yourself the way _I_ see you, instead of them. Please?”

Arthur knows that that’s impossible, but Eames doesn’t. When Eames looks at Arthur it's obvious that what he sees is not the damaged and strung out boy that Arthur really is. But Arthur knows also that how Eames sees him is enough to try with, at least for now. So long as Eames believes he’s worth saving, that he's valued, Arthur will take Eames’ word over his own. Eames always knows better anyways.

They’re both quiet on the floor for a long time as the sun goes down.

Arthur gets up to run a wash cloth under warm water for Eames and brings him a bag a frozen peas for his bruised knuckles. He cleans Eames’ face a little, knowing that they’ll both need a bath, but…for now, he kisses under each of Eames’ eyes and once on his lips.

Deep down he knows that he can make Eames happy, eventually, but making _himself_ happy? Well, he supposes that’s what Eames is for. Eames is his world, after all. Arthur’s happy enough just with that.

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**End.**

 

**Author's Note:**

> For more drabble requests, questions, inspiration pics, and updates, go to grizzly-bear-bane.tumblr.com/


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